COUNTRY MUSIC CLASSICS
Doug Davis
Owner/Publisher/Manager/Editor/
Writer/Gopher/Chief Cook & Bottle Washer
Thursday February 26th, 2015
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE AT www.countrymusicclassics.com -
http://www.countrymusicclassics.com
Email: Classics@countrymusicclassics.com
STORY BEHIND THE SONG
Some hit songs have been written from inspiration while the writer was driving
down the highway or while on the lake sitting in a boat while other hit songs
were crafted in actual writing sessions meetings in which two or more writers
came together specifically to write songs.
According to Even Stevens Eddie Rabbitts 1981 number one Step By Step, came from
one of those writing sessions at his cabin at The Caribou Ranch in Nederland,
Colorado - with Rabbitt and David Malloy.
Stevens commented that the song came from a Three Stooges comedy routine that
was also used in an episode of I Love Lucy in which a crazy man kills someone
each time his ex-wifes name is mentioned and utters the words: Slowly I turn,
step by step, inch by inch.
The trio reportedly wrote the song in half an hour and it became the title track
of Eddie Rabbitts next album.
His Elektra Records single Step By Step entered the country music charts August
1st, 1981 and was at the top of the list on October 17th.
It was his 19th charted song and his 9th number one.
Eddie Rabbitt placed 43 songs on the country charts between 1974 and 1991.
He died in 1998.
^^^^^^^^^^
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: I heard that Tom T. Hall won some kind of award for bluegrass music. Do you
have any info?
A: Tom T. Hall and his late wife Dixie Hall, who passed away January 16th, won
the award for Bluegrass Songwriter Of The Year from The Society for the
Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America
Q: My daughter says that some kind of Hank Williams radio shows won a Grammy.
What is that about?
A: "The Garden Spot Programs," a series of radio shows recorded by Hank
Williams in 1950 and just released in 2014, were named Best Historical Album at
the 2015 Grammy Awards.
Q: Do you know anything about Willie Nelson's Farm Aid. Is he doing it this
year?
A: The 2015 30th annual Farm Aid is scheduled for September 19th. At last
report - the location had not been announced.
Q: Shenandoah is my favorite group and my daughter tells me that their
original lead singer Marty Raybon - has rejoined the group. Is that true?
A: After an 18 year absence - Marty Raybon has rejoined Shenadoah. He has
done a few concerts with the group - as a prelude to a full-blown tour starting
in March.
Q: My neighbor says he has a tape made from the radio years ago of Bob Luman
singing the Tanya Tucker hit song "Delta Dawn." Did Luman record that song?
A: Luman's version of "Delta Dawn" is in his 1972 "Lonely Women Make Good
Lovers" album
Q: I know the song "Soldier's Last Letter" is an old tune and has been
recorded many times. Did anybody have a hit with the song?
A: Ernest Tubb's version of the song went to number one in 1944 and Merle
Haggard's made it to number three in 1971.
^^^^^^^^^
A T T E N T I O N: R A D I O S T A T I O N S:
Our short form daily radio feature, Story Behind The Song is now
available to radio
stations.
NOT AVAILABLE TO INTERNET STATIONS)
The feature is available at no charge.
For information, email me at
classics@countrymusicclassics.com
^^^^^^^^^^
NUMBER ONES ON THIS DATE
1945
Im Losing My Mind Over You - Al Dexter
1953
Kaw-Liga - Hank Williams
1961
North to Alaska - Johnny Horton
1969
Until My Dreams Come True - Jack Greene
1977
Say Youll Stay Until Tomorrow - Tom Jones
1985
Babys Got Her Blue Jeans On - Mel McDaniel
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"The Inside Dope"
By: Jack Blanchard
Good people do bad things to good people, and vice versa.
One excuse is: Business is business.
I'm using real names today. It's all true, so what the hell.
Here goes my lovable image.
There was a recurring character in our life named Rusty Diamond,
a singer/con man with a talent for getting rich girlfriends.
On the Starday album: "Country Music Goes To War",
he sings "The Lonely Sentry",
a song I wrote and produced.
We used electric pedal banjo and church bells,
and Misty sang duet harmony under the name Marianne Mail.
It's probably the best country record ever made in Florida,
but I'm too modest to say so.
Tommy Hill relayed to me that the company was only going to offer me
a half cent royalty deal, because they didn't think much of the song.
It was the first one to be released and distributed.
In those days, Bob Montgomery, a publisher,
used to pick me up after the Starday sessions and we'd hang out,
like buddies.
He liked my songs, and I like that in a person.
I had a song called "Pass Around The Apples"
that he guaranteed me an immediate Norma Jean cut on,
or he'd give it back in six weeks.
I don't remember how the song went.
About a year later I asked him nicely to return the publishing to me,
if he had no plans for it.
He sent me to his lawyer.
His lawyer said: "I can't just hand out copyrights to everybody."
No hard feelings. I get the songs free.
Another year and Misty and I were shopping our first recording together.
We took it to Bob Montgomery, and apparently we weren't buddies anymore,
because we've gotten more warmth from the I.R.S.
I still don't know what he was mad at.
Buck Owens' manager once told us he'd love to have us as Buck's regular openers,
but Buck said he didn't want to follow us.
That compliment gave us as much joy as a good eulogy.
A guy named Barry McCloud wrote "The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Country
Music",
and told the world Misty and I were divorced.
This at a time when we were busy trying to convince everybody we weren't dead.
He told me to stop calling him, it made him mad.
I know there may be someone in the world who might even say a bad thing about
me,
but I can't imagine why.
Who are the good guys and the bad guys?
It all depends on who you ask.
Jack Blanchard
http://www.jackandmisty.net
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
TODAY IN COUNTRY MUSIC HISTORY
Compiled by Bill Morrison
1898 - Sid Harkreader, fiddler, guitarist, born Gladville, Tennessee.
1926 - Billy Jack Wills, Western swing bandleader, singer, and songwriter born
Hall County,
Texas. Billy was Bob Wills' youngest brother.
1932 - Johnny Cash 1932-2003, "The Man In Black" born Kingsland, Arkansas, the
fourth of seven children to Roy and Carrie Cash.
1938 - Roy Acuff changed the name of his band from "The Crazy Tennesseans to
"The Smokey
Mountain Boys" in 1938. The name was suggested by Harry Stone.
1938 - Jan Crutchfield songwriter, singer, and music executive born in Paducah,
Kentucky.
1952 - Chris Wall, singer, songwriter born Los Angeles, California.
1955 - Lillie Skipper Williams, mother of Hank Williams, died in Montgomery,
Alabama. Hank's possessions and memorabilia were left to Hank's sister Irene.
1955 - The Louvin Brothers joined the Grand Ole Opry.
1955 - Faron Young released "Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young."
1958 - Marty Robbins recorded "Ain't I The Lucky One" in New York City for
Columbia Records. Melvin Endsley wrote the song, and Mitch Miller produced the
session. The session personnel included: Marty Robbins-vocals & guitar; Billy
Mure-guitar; Tony Mottola-guitar; Don Arnone-guitar; Frank Carroll-bass; Ed
Shauhnessy-drums; Ray Coniff-session leader.
1960 - Marty Robbins released "Big Iron" b/w "Saddle Tramp".
1968 - Jim Reeves' RCA album "Distant Drums" was certified Gold by the RIAA. The
album was released in 1966. Three singles released from the album went to #1.
"Distant Drums," "Is It Really Over?" and "This Is It." This was Jim's 2nd Gold
Album.
1971 - A&M Records released the album "Rita Coolidge."
1972 - Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Johnny Bench were featured guests on
"Hee Haw."
1977 - Ernest Tubb and Jody Miller were featured guests on "Hee Haw."
1994 - The Desert Rose Band gave their final concert in Indio, California.
2002 - ASV released Red Foley's album "Chattanoogie Shoeshine Boy."
2002 - The National Conference on Education honored Dolly Parton with their
Galaxy Award.
2005 - One of Pat Green's tour buses caught fire near Chattanooga, Tennessee, in
the early morning hours. The bus driver woke the band and everyone was removed
from the bus without injury.
2005 - The Grand Ole Opry moved back to the Opry House after a two-month stay at
the Ryman Auditorium.
2005 - Charlie Louvin appeared on the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree on WSM. It
was Charlie's 50th anniversary as a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
2006 - The National Wild Turkey Federation's 30th Convention and Sport Show was
held the 23rd-26th in Nashville. Joe Diffie and Diamond Rio headlined the
entertainment.
Courtesy Bill Morrison:
<http://www.talentondisplay.com/countrycalMAR.html>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
VIEW FROM THE FRONT PORCH
By: Stan Hitchcock
Sometimes you just had to sit down in the grass, grab a weed to chew on, and
ponder this: "Is The 70's ever gonna end?" Dang it, I loved the 50's and 60's
but these 70's kinda suck. The music was already starting to change, for half of
the decade we were still embroiled in the Vietnam War...College kids were
rioting and burning flags...a bad marriage was getting even worse, and would
soon end ...and my hair was long enough to mak...e me a Hippie. The 70's were my
dark years....so, don't go telling me how great they were. Now, the 80's hit and
it all came together again. In 1984 I met and married Denise Thornburg, and
added Hitchcock to her name. That wiped away all the bad stuff I went through in
the 70's. I put together the team and we all started Country Music Television
(CMT), our Son Scott was born...and all was good in my life again.
Funny how certain pictures bring back some of your history. I reckon that's why
we make them....to remind us who we were and what we were doing at that place in
time.
So, rock on chillin', that old boggie man, the 70's ain't never gonna be back
again. We survived, and here we are...in the uhhhh....dadblame, is it the 2000's
already? Time flies when you are having a good time.
Stan Hitchcock
www.hitchcockcountry.com -
http://www.hitchcockcountry.com
^^^^^^^^^
SOUTHERN STYLE
By: Randall Franks
Randall Franks is a film and TV actor best known as: Officer Randy Goode
(1988-1993) in the television series In the Heat of the Night. He is also an
author, and a bluegrass singer and musician who was inducted into the
Independent Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013; recognized by the International
Bluegrass Music Museum in 2010 as a Bluegrass Legend; inducted into the Atlanta
Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004; and has been designated the "Appalachian
Ambassador of the Fiddle".
Dont watch the world go by, use your imagination
The water whished over the rocks below creating a gurgling sound as I sat
dangling my feet off the bridge. I was just high enough above the water where if
I could stretch out as far as I could I still couldnt touch the water but I
dreamed of the day when I would be big enough to do so.
As I sat there I counted the leaves that floated beneath the bridge imagining
that each one was a ship heading out to an adventure at sea.
It was early enough in the fall that the whole fleet wasnt setting sail beneath
me.
There was so much imagination that filled my childhood. I would move from one
imagined adventure to another filling my days with sword fights, gun battles,
cavalry charges, and Indian skirmishes. If I had managed to gather a few
comrades in arms, we might manage building a fort, stocking it with pinecones,
and then take turns setting off with a huge offensive to capture it.
When I tired of war games, I would move on building things, damming up creeks
like a beaver, digging holes that were big enough for a root cellar, gathering
up fallen logs to build a cabin façade, pretending that I was on the frontier.
I was blessed to be able to be a kid, play like one and have the environment
where my imagination could run and I was allowed to explore and experience what
I held within my head.
Today, I see so many youths who are tied mentally to a chair with their
imagination being dictated to them by whatever game is coming across their
television, their computer or their phone. I am sure they find the adventures
just a stimulating as I did but theirs is created by the imagination of game
designers and they are simply taking trips in someone elses imagination.
They sit there idle as they ask to be fed by someone elses imaginative
situational adventure.
Same is true of the adults who await that next movie, TV show, or sporting event
to take them away for a period of time, rather than creating something
themselves.
I really think God provided us a mind so that we will use it to create,
entertain, invent, and find ways to make life more amazing.
So much time and energy is lost in pursuits that probably do not inspire others
in that direction but simply feed an appetite for diversion --- that is,
entertain me. Our mind wishes to be filled by others, rather than doing it
ourselves.
I applaud those of you, who use your time and energies to create, engage,
encourage and change the world around them.
If you have not tried it in a while, there is no better time than the present.
Pick up your pen, start writing that story you always wanted to write; what
about that thing you always wanted to build, you should try. Nothing ventured,
nothing gained.
Randall Franks
http://www.randallfranks.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do
everything in love.
1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (NIV)
^^^^^^^^
To unsubscribe from this newsletter: send an email to:
country-music-classics-off@mail-list.com
^^^^^^^^^^^
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe, send a blank message to country-music-classics-on@mail-list.com
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to country-music-classics-off@mail-list.com
To change your email address, send a message to country-music-classics-change@mail-list.com
with your old address in the Subject: line
To contact the list owner, send your message to
country-music-classics-list-owner@mail-list.com
Doug Davis-Country Music Classics-3702 Pleasant Grove Rd-Texarkana, Texas 75503
To unsubscribe or change your email address, click here.
<http://cgi.mail-list.com/u?ln=country-music-classics&nm=thegblogindy%40gmail.com>
No comments:
Post a Comment